Myanmar removes heavy weapons from border

A photo taken on Thursday shows a solder of Border Guard Bangladesh stands guard along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border in Tombru in Bandarban. — AFP photo

Myanmar removed its heavy weapons from their side opposite Tumbru border under Naikhongchari in Bandarban on Saturday, hours after a flag meeting held on Friday afternoon.Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, replying to reporters at a programme arranged by Metropolitan Cooperative Society at Farmgate area in the capital on the day, said that Myanmar had removed its heavy weapons from Tambru border following the flag meeting.‘During the flag meeting, the Myanmar authorities said they, upon receiving wrong information, had deployed army along Tumbru border,’ he said.He said that members of Border Guard Bangladesh and Myanmar Border Guard Police of Myanmar would patrol their respective border areas in coordination from March 27.Myanmar Border Guard Police and army that had been asking the Rohingyas to leave from the zero line for past one month using public announcement system did not do so on Saturday, said Naikhongchari upazila nirbahi officer in the evening.He said that the Myanmar BGP and army tried to terrorise the Rohingyas at Tumbru Konapara point but the situation was now normal.No additional Myanmar BGP members were seen patrolling the barbed-wire border fence opposite Tumbru, he said, adding, ‘there is no tension along the border right now.’On Thursday, BGB members were put on high alert as Myanmar army took position along the Tumbru border with heavy weapons.The Myanmar army troops also fired a shot Thursday evening but they denied it during the flag meeting, a high official of BGB in Dhaka said. Myanmar on Friday claimed that the fresh deployment was for internal security as Bangladesh called for an immediate retreat to descale tensions along the troubled border. The government on Thursday summoned Myanmar ambassador in Dhaka Lwin Oo and protested against unusual mobilisation of huge troops with heavy arms and ammunition violating international conventions.The Bangladesh government and international community continue struggling to cope with the situation as over 6.88 lakh Rohingyas have so far entered Cox’s Bazar since August 25, 2017 making it one of the biggest humanitarian problems of the world.The new influx began after Myanmar security forces on August 25, 2017 responded to Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army’s reported attacks by launching a violence that the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing.Officials estimated that the new influx increased the number of Myanmar people living in Bangladesh to 11.07 lakh.